AppleInsider StaffThe news was part of a brief inclusion in a story at TechCrunch about the upcoming Worldwide Developers Conference. Author MG Siegler characterized the "big news" for iOS as "completely revamped notifications and widgets."
Signs of an improved notifications first cropped up last June, when Apple hired the designer who created the notification system for Palm's webOS. And Apple, through patent filings, has shown interest in creating always-in-sync widgets for touchscreen devices.
Sources also told the site that Apple is pushing journalists to come to this year' show because "the software announcements will be huge." Apple's big changes with iOS 5 are expected to make up for the anticipated lack of hardware to be shown off at this year's event.
The report also presumed that Apple will make announcements related to cloud storage for both iOS and Mac OS X 10.7 Lion. The site previously reported in March that Apple may not release a cloud-based iOS 5 until this fall.
Sources also reportedly indicated that the new licensing deal with Nuance for voice recognition will not play a part in the "Voice Control" feature of Apple's mobile operating system.
"That's odd since it's perhaps the most obvious usage," Siegler wrote. "But apparently, in the builds of iOS 5 currently being tested, the little-used feature hasn't changed at all, we hear."
The report noted that Nuance technology could eventually make its way into iOS Voice Control, but relayed a rumor that the licensing deal is meant for "bigger things more core to the OS than that one feature."
Back in February, The Wall Street Journal reported that Apple was working on "voice navigation" technology for the next major update to iOS. And another report from The New York Times claimed that Apple would enhance operation of iOS devices through voice commands because some users dislike using a virtual keyboard.
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115 Comments
There had better be more to it than just this stuff, or it had better blow people away, or Apple risks looking like they're playing catch-up to Android circa 2009.
There had better be more to it than just this stuff, or it had better blow people away, or Apple risks looking like they're playing catch-up to Android circa 2009.
That would be true wrt to Widgets, but not notifications. Android also has poorly implemented notifications (not as bad as iOS though). Wrt notifications, they are playing catchup with WebOS.
But I agree. These are necessary and important changes, but it will be highly disappointing if these changes and Voice integration are the headlining features.
While Android is still a usage clusterf***, as far as features, with Google Wallet, its well past iOS. iOS5 needs to be huge, to match up.
There had better be more to it than just this stuff, or it had better blow people away, or Apple risks looking like they're playing catch-up to Android circa 2009.
I think there will be at least "100 new features"
Re Android circa 2009 - really? Rose tinted much?
Its about time so I applaud this move. I like the idea of widgets on the front and only getting at apps when I want to.
For the first time, I'm content to just wait and see what Apple reveals. Most other years there was a laundry list of items for them to add. Today there's only a handful I can find that would be useful to me. Hoping they'll show off something I didn't know I needed but that will be indispensable to my future workflow.